Keeper Carey eyes future in the long-form

After a breakout 12 months, Alex Carey is out to prove he's more than just a white-ball specialist.

Carey brought up his second first-class century with an unbeaten 110 for South Australia in their Sheffield Shield clash with NSW at the SCG on Saturday.

Establishing himself in long-form cricket remains the next frontier for the former GWS Giants squad member after cementing his spot in the Australian one-day and Twenty20 sides this year.

Carey put himself on the radar of Australian selectors during the 2017-18 Big Bash League season when he stroked 443 runs - the second most of the season behind D'Arcy Short - at an average of 49.22.

He made his ODI debut in January and his first Twenty20 international appearance a month later.

Tim Paine is well and truly established as Australia's Test skipper and keeper but at 34 it remains to be seen how many years he has left in him.

"Every time I come back and play first-class cricket I want to do well," Carey said.

"I want to play both well with the red ball and the white ball. Whatever ball it is, runs count. If I'm away playing ODIs, then that's the focus. If I'm back here then it's trying to do well for South Australia.

"I'm still learning my game. I've only played (29 first-class games) now. I want to keep getting better now. Today it was quite controlled and in the past I'd probably get ahead of myself and play too many shots too early."

To date, Carey's Sheffield Shield returns have been modest and he averages 26.95 in first-class cricket.

In 2016-17 he hit 594 runs at an average of 33.00 - as well as taking 59 dismissals for the season, a record for the competition.

The following year, he managed 455 runs at 35.00.

He was absent from the Redbacks' first four games of 2018-19 and will miss a good chunk of the second half of the Shield season due to Australian commitments.

"You've got to get used to it playing white-ball cricket and then coming back into red-ball cricket, just adapting to batting for a long time," Carey said."

"With the white-ball you play on quite flat wickets and the ball's not doing much and then playing a spinner and it reserves and just being really flexible.